UEFA confident of no more TV outages

Thursday

VIENNA, Austria (AP) - European Championship organizers apologized for the 18-minute coverage blackout of the Germany-Turkey semifinal that left TV companies unhappy and mulling possible action.

A freak storm in Vienna, with hurricane-force winds of up to 87 mph, created three power outages yesterday that disrupted the worldwide telecast of the final stages of the thrilling game, which Germany won 3-2 in the Swiss city of Basel on a last minute-goal by Philipp Lahm.

"It's a purely technical issue that we deeply regret, which" was because of "the coincidence of a lot of events, including the weather, which was pretty exceptional in Vienna," said Alexandre Fourtoy, chief executive officer of UEFA Media Technologies.

"We were affected during the second half of the Germany-Turkey game by three micro-cuts, which are less than one millisecond. But this millisecond was enough to cause our master-control room to reboot, and that took several minutes" each time, "and that's why the signal was affected."

Fourtoy said a protective system failed to detect the cuts and switch to backup power, adding that changes had been made to ensure there's no repeat for today's semifinal in Vienna between Spain and Russia, or for Sunday's final at the same Ernst Happel Stadium.

"For tonight and for the final, we have switched the power of the" International Broadcast Center "to the generator power, which also has a backup of its own," he said.

The main fan zone in Vienna was evacuated because of the storm, and police said two fans were seriously injured after being trampled in the rush to get out.

Fourtoy said he didn't know how many countries were impacted by the TV blackout, but it affected a significant number of rights holders, including ESPN in the United States. Asked whether UEFA expected compensation claims from TV companies who lost the picture, he wouldn't comment.

"I don't know exactly the terms of the contracts, as it is not my field," Fourtoy said. "I don't think there is an obligation to take the signal from Vienna because broadcasters have several capacities to manage a signal."

German broadcaster ZDF said it missed out on record viewing figures because of the blackout.

"There is ratings damage," ZDF editor in chief Nikolaus Brender said in a statement. "Many viewers were disappointed. We will have to speak about it with UEFA."

An average of 29.43 million of Germany's 82 million inhabitants watched ZDF's coverage of yesterday's match - just short of the record 29.66 million who watched Germany's semifinal loss to Italy at the 2006 World Cup. However, viewing figures peaked at 32.74 million yesterday, above the World Cup match's peak of 31.31 million.

ZDF sports chief Dieter Gruschwitz said "possible claims" against UEFA would be examined but did not elaborate.

"We will coordinate with the other broadcasting services," he told The Associated Press.

ZDF resorted to audio play-by-play when the screen went black for six minutes before switching to the only feed available, from Swiss television. It managed to show all the goals, although Miroslav Klose's header that put Germany 2-1 ahead in the 79th minute was heard before it was shown.

British Broadcasting Corp. official Louisa Fyans said viewers understood the problem was out of the television company's hands.

"There were 9 million viewers, and we only got 168 complaints," she said.

Fyans, BBC head of marketing and communication, said no decision on future action had been taken.

"There's going to be a full investigation and then we'll decide what to do."

Per Nunstedt, head of soccer at private Swedish channel TV4, said a UEFA official called him to explain the new measures taken for today's match. "I'm satisfied with the measures they've taken. They are guaranteeing a satellite link from another European city," he told the daily Expressen.

Nunstedt said no decision had been taken on any possible legal action against UEFA.

UEFA spokesman William Gaillard said if the storm happened during the Vienna semifinal, it was likely the game would have been halted.

"If you are playing a football game in this kind of weather, the referee may decide to suspend it for a few minutes," Gaillard said. "The whole weather situation lasted for 25-30 minutes, so that, if it had been in Vienna, it could have stopped the game. It is not the sort of weather that we usually get in June in central Europe."

Copyright 2008 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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